Don't think Batman has ever had bullet-proof armour, apart from special-purpose battle-suits. The bright yellow emblem is armoured but the batsuit itself is only good at resisting knife attacks.
PS: I don't count the suit Jean made/wore to beat Bane as a batsuit.
"People who spend a lot of time visiting hospitals are more likely to die shortly thereafter, Slashdot scientists said on Wednesday. These 'hospital visitors' suffered proportionately more illnesses, ailments and injuries, CmdrTaco said. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to fatal conditions than normal people."
Sigh. I thought the point of research was to discover, inform and enlighten. Not just "research for research's sake".
A brillant battery idea, but it's not mine: Swap the battery rather than charging it in place. Replaceable battery modules can be swapped out quickly and recharged at leisure. Charging stations can have the infrastructure in place to robotically swap batteries in about the time it takes to pump gas. GPS systems can be programmed to route to swapping stations with an available battery for your vehicle. With reliably present battery swapping stations, road trips of any length become possible. It doesn't take a large surplus of batteries to make this work out given the statistical variation - and charging your battery with 220V AC is a good default solution. Forget 110V. That's not going to work. You're going to need more current than your typical wall outlet will provide.
.....
I'll just comment on the batteries issue. Hot-swapping batteries to speed up battery recharge times is unnecessary unless you insist on recharging from a standard household plug/voltage. Also, you should not run your electrical car until battery depletion. That means that most of the time you will be doing a top-up charge, going from about 20% to about 70% battery capacity, which is quicker.
Batteries need some improvement but they are not the only electricity storage solutions. Capacitor based systems may ultimately be the future direction.
I have personal reservations about hot-swappable batteries. If it is possible for someone to do at home, somebody will try it. The prospect of a fully/partially charged battery pack being accidentally discharged by a weekend tinkerer is frightening. Anything that can release that much energy that quickly should be left to experts.
The first half of you post had merit, but you lost it (and my interest) from then on. The following quotes are the problem:
- British/American enlightenment devotion to the Rights of Man - inflicts Hell on Earth on its own citizens because they might think there is a mystical element to some forms of exercise - hardcore socialist (chortle) Barack Obama(snicker) - Second Coming of Karl Marx
Each of those statements is factually wrong and would be misleading even if intended as hyperbole. You were doing well until then, stick with what you know.
I think the parent poster is confusing a memory protection feature with multi-tasking. With memory protection the independent tasks could be prevented from stomping on each others memory spaces.
Exactly. The 0-60 time of any car is the last thing I consider. I need to go from 0-60 *once* in any trip I make. How well it copes with being driven flat out for 300 miles is a far more pressing concern.
I'll start looking at electric cars when they can produce one that takes no more than 60 quid to charge from fully flat, can carry four or five large adults plus their luggage plus at least 200kg of equipment, and can average no less than 100mph for 350 miles on a charge. That would be getting close to being able to replace my ordinary car, assuming it's actually nice to drive and doesn't give me a numb backside. Your requirements are absurd. To summarize, a feasible replacement car for you must:
- take no more than 60 quid to charge (or fuel) - carry 4 or 5 large adults + luggage + 200kg of equipment - reliably handle being driven for 3 hours at 100mph (average speed) on a single trip
From these specifications I surmise your current "ordinary car" is substantially bigger, more powerful and more fuel efficient than any Range Rover (or equivalent).
Every car, electric or otherwise, is a compromise in Speed, Carrying Capacity and Cost (Price and Fuel Efficiency). Don't conflate your requirements when evaluating electric cars, look at your typical usage and go from there.
By the way, building an electric car with those specifications is well within the capabilities of current technology. However, I doubt that you would be willing (or able) to pay the price required.
The GSM standard has SMS sent on the control channel but oust carriers today (in the UK) have parallel SMS networks running. They pull the SMS messages off the control channel into the SMS network at the earliest opportunity (sender side) and return them into the GSM control stream as late as they can (receiver side). Ericsson had a product they sold to carriers that made a huge fuss about this capability.
This prevents large chunks of the network from going wonky due to control channel delay. However even with this change SMS congestion will still occur (the difference between average and peak traffic is so huge) it just won't kill the network. It's simply not economically feasible to build a network that can deal with the "New Year" effect.
This doesn't qualify as whining. John Carmack said pretty much the same things about Apple and gaming (including the whole game team turnover issue). It seems to be a pretty accurate representation of the Apple position, albeit from a person/company who are not (publicly) seen as engaging with Apple on gaming.
Sounds like whining from Valve to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Apple is a saint or anything. They should probably make things easier and up the hardware a little more.
Other game companies have made games for Apple no problem: ID, EA, Blizzard, etc. The difference is they accept that they have to go with OpenGL. Some of them are fairly recent ones too. Apple has even made 1-2 updates that include fixes for a game, so they "care." I've always seen it as an effort vs reward type of thing: a bunch of work for a smaller audience makes it less likely to happen.
My guess is they're asking Apple to do something along the lines of Direct-X, to make it easy to adapt an DX game for some mythical Apple architecture. They probably want big architecture changes or additions, things they aren't just going to do on a whim because of Valve.
After the things Valve did, it's hard for me to take their side after just hearing their claim. Heck, even against MS I'd have a hard time just believing Valve.
"killall -9" is Unix for "terminate with extreme prejudice". The process gets no warning, opportunity to explain or time to cleanup. It is impossible for dpkg to safely cope with this situation without requiring special kernel support and a fully transactioned filesystem.
Pretty sure you nailed it right there. On the one hand, this kind of crap isn't going to help her be taken seriously at all. On the other hand, she is very, very cute.
It's entirely possible that Prof Hottie ^H^H^H Hazelwood discovered some new arcana in the field and the reporter can't even come close to understanding 3/4 of it, so she just went with the easy stuff. More likely, Hazelwood rediscovered the FPGA.
Lord, preserve us from slashidiots...
Cute Chick factor can only get you so far. This is not CS Undergrad Hazelwood we are talking about, it is Professor Hazelwood. You don't get that far without some serious chops, so I would say that it is bloody unlikely she is rediscovering the FPGA.
The reporter and/or the editor had no idea what they were writing about and it shows. The article makes no distinction between microcode and a CPU's instruction set, lumping them together as software. Which is kind of dumb because large parts of Tortola are about taking advantage of the separation of the two.
ioctl is absolutely not part of the Unix philosophy. It was created for a small limited case and subsequently abused until it became the beast it is today.
The guys at Bell Labs didn't like it much and in the next system they built (Plan 9) totally eliminated it.
The senior Linux devs don't like it much either. Google search the kernel mailing list archives and you'll come up with several rants against inappropriate use of ioctl.
Except that comparing Linux to OS X is not valid. Linux and Darwin (plus XNU?) exist at approximately the same level of abstraction, while OS X is more akin to KDE.
So it could be "running OS X" but have an entirely different kernel under there. Just as there are different kernel platforms for KDE.
It is a smarter decision for Apple to license something like QNX, and build on top in it, rather than port or develop their own kernel. They have never been good at kernel level development and their energies are better focused elsewhere.
Actually, if you look back at archives of his.plan, he always liked Direct X. It was Direct 3D that he thought was juvenile. Over the years the Direct 3D programming model has moved very close to that which is used by OpenGL, so he may reconsider even that.
My apologies, I misread your post and fired off rashly. Looking back I notice the italic effect that means you knew exactly what you were talking about and it was actually the parent post that was uninformed.
The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin. The first animal in space was Laika. The first satellite in space was Sputnik 1. The first probe to Venus was Venera 1.
All these were Soviet achievements (I also think they got the first woman into space).
That's not what it's about. Converting between inches, feet and furlongs is not a problem. Converting between inches, gallons and pounds is the issue.
A water tank is 2 metres long, 2 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. It's volumes is 6 m^3 (cubic metres) which is 6,000,000 cm^3 or 6,000 litres. This amount of water would weigh 6,000 kg.
Doing that in imperial units is messier. Now imagine if you were trying to figure out how much energy your tank of rocket fuel contains.
The advantages of being metric are not when you have to convert within the same "measure" (length, volume, energy) but when you cross from one to the other.
Try measuring a rectangular shaped swimming pool and figuring out what volume of water is required to fill it. It's much easier to do in metric than imperial units.
That's why the scientific community likes metric. It makes the conversions between length, mass, volume, energy etc.. a lot less painful. And for a rocket scientist these are conversions you do every day.
You know what would be really cool? When an application crashes:
- the system collects a stacktrace of the process and the libraries (including version numbers) it was using - compiles this with extra possible relevant info about your state at time of crash - (after asking your permission) connects to an online database of crashes and compares your stacktrace to the database, looking up the debug symbols automatically - if your stacktrace matches a previously known crash it shows you the bug entry for that crash - if your crash is unique, it allows you to file a new bug for the developers to look at
That would really be a step forward in improving the stability of free desktop environments.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't think Batman has ever had bullet-proof armour, apart from special-purpose battle-suits. The bright yellow emblem is armoured but the batsuit itself is only good at resisting knife attacks.
PS: I don't count the suit Jean made/wore to beat Bane as a batsuit.
"People who spend a lot of time visiting hospitals are more likely to die shortly thereafter, Slashdot scientists said on Wednesday. These 'hospital visitors' suffered proportionately more illnesses, ailments and injuries, CmdrTaco said. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to fatal conditions than normal people."
Sigh. I thought the point of research was to discover, inform and enlighten. Not just "research for research's sake".
- Edward -
Strangely enough, I think that two of the Scaled Composites test pilots are brothers.
In Manchester there is a franchisee of the Virgin group that operates a store selling bridal apparel and accessories.
It's called "Virgin Brides".
You sound like the author of the "Black Swan". You are both:
- correct on almost all points
- speaking in language that makes it hard to distinguish jargon, allegory and hyperbole
- going to be ignored
Such a shame.
This is going to be a little random.
A brillant battery idea, but it's not mine: Swap the battery rather than charging it in place. Replaceable battery modules can be swapped out quickly and recharged at leisure. Charging stations can have the infrastructure in place to robotically swap batteries in about the time it takes to pump gas. GPS systems can be programmed to route to swapping stations with an available battery for your vehicle. With reliably present battery swapping stations, road trips of any length become possible. It doesn't take a large surplus of batteries to make this work out given the statistical variation - and charging your battery with 220V AC is a good default solution. Forget 110V. That's not going to work. You're going to need more current than your typical wall outlet will provide.
.....
I'll just comment on the batteries issue. Hot-swapping batteries to speed up battery recharge times is unnecessary unless you insist on recharging from a standard household plug/voltage. Also, you should not run your electrical car until battery depletion. That means that most of the time you will be doing a top-up charge, going from about 20% to about 70% battery capacity, which is quicker.
Batteries need some improvement but they are not the only electricity storage solutions. Capacitor based systems may ultimately be the future direction.
I have personal reservations about hot-swappable batteries. If it is possible for someone to do at home, somebody will try it. The prospect of a fully/partially charged battery pack being accidentally discharged by a weekend tinkerer is frightening. Anything that can release that much energy that quickly should be left to experts.
The first half of you post had merit, but you lost it (and my interest) from then on. The following quotes are the problem:
- British/American enlightenment devotion to the Rights of Man
- inflicts Hell on Earth on its own citizens because they might think there is a mystical element to some forms of exercise
- hardcore socialist (chortle) Barack Obama(snicker)
- Second Coming of Karl Marx
Each of those statements is factually wrong and would be misleading even if intended as hyperbole. You were doing well until then, stick with what you know.
I think the parent poster is confusing a memory protection feature with multi-tasking. With memory protection the independent tasks could be prevented from stomping on each others memory spaces.
I'll start looking at electric cars when they can produce one that takes no more than 60 quid to charge from fully flat, can carry four or five large adults plus their luggage plus at least 200kg of equipment, and can average no less than 100mph for 350 miles on a charge. That would be getting close to being able to replace my ordinary car, assuming it's actually nice to drive and doesn't give me a numb backside. Your requirements are absurd. To summarize, a feasible replacement car for you must:
- take no more than 60 quid to charge (or fuel)
- carry 4 or 5 large adults + luggage + 200kg of equipment
- reliably handle being driven for 3 hours at 100mph (average speed) on a single trip
From these specifications I surmise your current "ordinary car" is substantially bigger, more powerful and more fuel efficient than any Range Rover (or equivalent).
Every car, electric or otherwise, is a compromise in Speed, Carrying Capacity and Cost (Price and Fuel Efficiency). Don't conflate your requirements when evaluating electric cars, look at your typical usage and go from there.
By the way, building an electric car with those specifications is well within the capabilities of current technology. However, I doubt that you would be willing (or able) to pay the price required.
Heat is a problem with petrol-filled containers. If they get too hot they explode.
Seems a bit odd they would be used in cars.
The GSM standard has SMS sent on the control channel but oust carriers today (in the UK) have parallel SMS networks running. They pull the SMS messages off the control channel into the SMS network at the earliest opportunity (sender side) and return them into the GSM control stream as late as they can (receiver side). Ericsson had a product they sold to carriers that made a huge fuss about this capability.
This prevents large chunks of the network from going wonky due to control channel delay. However even with this change SMS congestion will still occur (the difference between average and peak traffic is so huge) it just won't kill the network. It's simply not economically feasible to build a network that can deal with the "New Year" effect.
Apples and oranges, not comparable. The 3 incidents you mention were human fatalities, this is a vehicle loss (on a semi-experimental design).
NASA has had quite a few vehicle losses, Armadillo has had no human fatalities.
"killall -9" is Unix for "terminate with extreme prejudice". The process gets no warning, opportunity to explain or time to cleanup. It is impossible for dpkg to safely cope with this situation without requiring special kernel support and a fully transactioned filesystem.
Lord, preserve us from slashidiots...
Cute Chick factor can only get you so far. This is not CS Undergrad Hazelwood we are talking about, it is Professor Hazelwood. You don't get that far without some serious chops, so I would say that it is bloody unlikely she is rediscovering the FPGA.
The reporter and/or the editor had no idea what they were writing about and it shows. The article makes no distinction between microcode and a CPU's instruction set, lumping them together as software. Which is kind of dumb because large parts of Tortola are about taking advantage of the separation of the two.
ioctl is absolutely not part of the Unix philosophy. It was created for a small limited case and subsequently abused until it became the beast it is today.
The guys at Bell Labs didn't like it much and in the next system they built (Plan 9) totally eliminated it.
The senior Linux devs don't like it much either. Google search the kernel mailing list archives and you'll come up with several rants against inappropriate use of ioctl.
The problem appears to be with your eyesight. Probably a form of colour-blindness.
Have your local eye-doctor check you out.
150 watts incandescent is pretty darn bright for typical room lighting. Most people
use 60/75 watt lights.
Redact that last sentence. It's catty and trollish (or at least more than I meant it to be).
Lesson learned: Don't post to slashdot while listening to the blues.
Except that comparing Linux to OS X is not valid. Linux and Darwin (plus XNU?) exist at approximately the same level of abstraction, while OS X is more akin to KDE.
So it could be "running OS X" but have an entirely different kernel under there. Just as there are different kernel platforms for KDE.
It is a smarter decision for Apple to license something like QNX, and build on top in it, rather than port or develop their own kernel. They have never been good at kernel level development and their energies are better focused elsewhere.
Actually, if you look back at archives of his .plan, he always liked Direct X. It was Direct 3D that he thought was juvenile. Over the years the Direct 3D programming model has moved very close to that which is used by OpenGL, so he may reconsider even that.
:-)
My apologies, I misread your post and fired off rashly. Looking back I notice the italic effect that means you knew exactly what you were talking about and it was actually the parent post that was uninformed.
Mea culpa.
I think you have your facts completely wrong.
The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin.
The first animal in space was Laika.
The first satellite in space was Sputnik 1.
The first probe to Venus was Venera 1.
All these were Soviet achievements (I also think they got the first woman into space).
That's not what it's about. Converting between inches, feet and furlongs is not a problem. Converting between inches, gallons and pounds is the issue.
A water tank is 2 metres long, 2 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. It's volumes is 6 m^3 (cubic metres) which is 6,000,000 cm^3 or 6,000 litres. This amount of water would weigh 6,000 kg.
Doing that in imperial units is messier. Now imagine if you were trying to figure out how much energy your tank of rocket fuel contains.
The advantages of being metric are not when you have to convert within the same "measure" (length, volume, energy) but when you cross from one to the other.
Try measuring a rectangular shaped swimming pool and figuring out what volume of water is required to fill it. It's much easier to do in metric than imperial units.
That's why the scientific community likes metric. It makes the conversions between length, mass, volume, energy etc.. a lot less painful. And for a rocket scientist these are conversions you do every day.
You know what would be really cool? When an application crashes:
- the system collects a stacktrace of the process and the libraries (including version numbers) it was using
- compiles this with extra possible relevant info about your state at time of crash
- (after asking your permission) connects to an online database of crashes and compares your
stacktrace to the database, looking up the debug symbols automatically
- if your stacktrace matches a previously known crash it shows you the bug entry for that crash
- if your crash is unique, it allows you to file a new bug for the developers to look at
That would really be a step forward in improving the stability of free desktop environments.
Maybe someday someone will do this